In 2011, biologists Alexander Wilson and Jens
Krause traveled to the Azores to
study sperm whales in the North Atlantic. Instead of merely learning
about an aspect or two of the animal’s behavior in the wild, however, the
scientists got an unprecedented peek into whales' seemingly gracious spirit
as well.Over the course of their research near the island of Pico,
Wilson and Krause encountered a pod of whales, made up of several adults and
calves, that had apparently adopted an unlikely non-whale companion to join
their clan -- a deformed bottlenose dolphin.

According to researchers, the pod's odd member appeared to be
surprisingly well-integrated into whale society. Over eight days of
observation, the biologists observed the adult dolphin swimming, feeding,
and even nuzzling along with the sperm whale behemoths.

"It really
looked like they had accepted the dolphin for whatever reason," says Wilson,
in a report from
Science Magazine. "They were being very sociable."Although
interspecies interaction,
and even unique forms of play, have been recorded before between
dolphins and whales before, the researchers can only speculate as to why
this mixed species arrangement might be more lasting.Wilson suspects
that the dolphin’s curved spine and slower swimming skills may have made it
a target of bullying from its own species, so it sought comfort in a new
community of slower-moving, less antagonizing whales:"Sometimes some
individuals can be picked on. It might be that this individual didn’t fit
in, so to speak, with its original group."

It is, of course,
impossible to determine how the sperm whale pod feels about their smaller
species tag-along, though it could derive simply from their shared instinct
to be social superseding the superficialities of their differences. After
all, both dolphins and whales are surely intelligent enough to know that the
vast expanse of the world's oceans doesn’t feel quite so foreboding when
in the kind company of others.

This post was originally published by
TreeHugger. You can view photos of the whale pod and its odd member at
TreeHugger.